Cheerleaders show up at every football game, no matter home or away to cheer on the Wolverines no matter what is happening in the game. However, they typically don’t get the credit that other fans or players do.
Last Friday, Aliso football faced Dominguez of Compton, Los Angeles. As always, the cheerleaders were there, leading the fans and parents in a variety of cheers meant to motivate the hard-working football players on the field. At this particular game, every senior cheerleader wore a flower crown as it was their senior night. The element of it being senior night added to the experience, with each senior performing a trick that they deemed was their best. These included flips, balancing on the hands of teammates and more.
The main goal of cheerleaders is to keep the student section and parents entertained and engaged while there’s a pause in play during the football game. Our Aliso cheer team uses a wide variety of cheers and chants, from “A-L-I-S-O” to tumbling passes to dance routines. All of these elements combine to create an amazing experience for the spectators during the games.
ASB member, Rachel James (9), shared, “I’ve been at every Aliso game, and every time I go it seems like the cheerleaders have something new to showcase to the fans.”
One of the best events the cheerleaders showcased was their battle of balance. There would be one senior flyer, one spotter, and two bases. The spotter would help the flyer get into a handstand, then brace their back to give an extra layer of safety. The two bases are where the flyer would do the handstand on top of. Once the teams of cheerleaders were set, the balancing would begin. The team that was able to keep the flyer in their handstand the longest would win. The winner of the last contest was able to keep their flyer in a handstand for over a minute.
Contrary to popular belief cheerleaders don’t just tumble or cheer, they also dance. During the first quarter of the game, the senior cheerleaders performed a complex dance with a variety of different formations, synchronized hand movements with one another, and had a variety of different dance moves.
Savannah Goodwin (10) shared, “I enjoy their dancing a lot, I didn’t realize until I started to attend football games that cheerleaders dance, I thought only song and dance team did it. But it was cool to see everything they did, my favorite move was when they jump up in the air and have one leg kicked out and one almost touching their head.”
This move that Goodwin is referring to is known as a firebird and is typically seen in jazz dances today, which is why people will sometimes also see the song team perform it.
No matter how much you enjoy cheer, their flips, dances, and cheers give everyone in the crowd a reason to enjoy a football game even if they aren’t football fans. They are a big part of why Aliso is considered to have so much energy from the Orange County Student Section, whether fans realize it or not.
